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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that pregnant women’s use of an over-the-counter pain medication is potentially linked to autism in a report that will also suggest a medicine derived from folate can be used to treat symptoms of the developmental disorder in some people, people familiar with the matter said. The report, expected this month from the Department of Health and Human Services, is likely to suggest as being among the potential causes of autism low levels of folate, an important vitamin, and Tylenol taken during pregnancy, people familiar with the matter said. (Whyte and Subbaraman, 9/5)

For more than a decade, scientists have asked whether acetaminophen — the active ingredient in the painkiller Tylenol — could affect fetal brain development, causing problems in children like autism and A.D.H.D. Some studies have suggested that there is a link; others have found none. Now the latest study ... has been swept into a larger, politically fraught debate about the causes of autism, spurred in part by the views of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary. (Ghorayshi, 9/5)

"Any association between acetaminophen and autism is based on limited, conflicting, and inconsistent science and is premature given the current science. Autism doesn’t have a single cause. It is the result of a complex mix of genetics and environment. We know that genetic factors play the biggest role: hundreds of genes have been linked to autism, and inherited or spontaneous changes in these genes can alter brain development. ... “It is disingenuous and misleading to boil autism’s causes down to one simple thing. We know that autism is incredibly complicated, and we need to move away from studies that simplify it down to one exposure without any other considerations”, said Dr. Alycia Halladay, Chief Science Officer at the Autism Science Foundation. (9/5)

Scientists at Stanford have found that hyperactivity in the brain’s reticular thalamic nucleus may drive autism-like behaviors. In mouse models, drugs and neuromodulation techniques that suppressed this overactive region reversed symptoms, hinting at new therapeutic pathways that overlap with epilepsy treatments. (9/8)

The Department of Health and Human Services has pulled back a government report warning of a link between cancer and drinking even small amounts of alcohol, according to the authors of the research. Their report, the Alcohol Intake and Health Study, warned that even one drink a day raises the risk of liver cirrhosis, oral and esophageal cancer, and injuries. The scientists who wrote it were told that the final version would not be submitted to Congress, as had been planned. (Caryn Rabin, 9/5)

When new dietary guidelines are unveiled later this month, the Trump administration is expected to upend long-held advice on whole milk and its full fat friends in the dairy aisle. For decades, the American public has been advised to opt for fat-free or low fat dairy options, largely out of concern for limiting the intake of saturated fat in these foods. (Stone, 9/8)